World News - Ryan to be quizzed over death row pardons Judge rules former Ill. governor must explain motivation for ’03 pardons

Former Gov. George Ryan must explain in court why he pardoned four death row inmates who are now suing a group of Chicago police officers.U.S. Magistrate Judge Geraldine Soat Brown ordered Ryan to sit for depositions before Sept. 30.Ryan, who used his pardon and commutation powers to empty death row before he left office in 2003, objected to the subpoena and claimed “executive privilege.” Brown noted in her ruling Thursday that Ryan discussed the pardons during an appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” with three of the plaintiffs.“Having voluntarily agreed to respond publicly to questions from a talk show host on the basis for his decision ... Ryan cannot now claim a privilege to refuse to give testimony in a civil case on that same topic,” Brown wrote.... http://www.msnbc.msn.com

A U.N.-brokered cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel will begin at 8 a.m. (1 a.m. ET) Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Saturday in a taped statement.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora agreed on the time, Annan said. But on the conflict's deadliest day yet for Israeli soldiers, he urged both sides to stop fighting immediately."Preferably, the fighting should stop now to respect the spirit and intent of the council decision, the object of which was to save civilian lives, to spare the pain and suffering that the civilians on both sides are living through," Annan said. But Saturday night, five Israeli soldiers died after Hezbollah fighters shot down their helicopter in southern Lebanon, Israel Defense Forces said. Earlier in the day, 19 Israeli soldiers were killed, seven of them during a battle in southern Lebanon, military officials said....http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/08/13/mideast.main/index.html?section=cnn_world

The United Nations Human Rights Council has voted to send a team to Lebanon to investigate alleged abuses by Israel. The council approved the resolution, proposed by a group of states led by Islamic countries, by 27 votes to 11. Many of the resolution's opponents criticised it for not mentioning Hezbollah attacks on Israel. Addressing the emergency session in Geneva, the UN's human rights chief, Louise Arbour, chided both sides for inflicting suffering on civilians. "Israeli attacks affecting civilians continue unabated," she told a special session of the UN Human Rights Council. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4783511.stm

In Iraq and Afghanistan, the "coalition" defeats continue slowly to unroll. In Lebanon, it appears Hezbollah may win not only at the moral and mental, strategic and operational levels, but, astonishingly, at the physical and tactical levels as well. That outcome remains uncertain, but the fact that it is possible portends a revolutionary reassessment of what Fourth Generation forces can accomplish. If it actually happens, the walls of the temple that is the state system will be shaken world-wide. One pointer to a shift in the tactical balance is the comparative casualty counts. According to the Associated Press, as of this writing Lebanese dead total at least 642, of whom 558 are civilians, 29 Lebanese soldiers (who, at least officially, are not in the fight) and only 55 Hezbollah fighters. So Israel, with its American-style hi-tech "precision weaponry," has killed ten times as many innocents as enemies. In contrast, of 97 Israeli dead, 61 are soldiers and only 36 civilians, ...http://www.lewrockwell.com/lind/lind104.html

White House spokesman Tony Snow was asked Thursday if the GOP effort was linked to the knowledge that the world was about to get a stark reminder about terrorism. "I don't want to get into operational details," Snow said aboard Air Force One as Bush headed to Wisconsin for several events. "Let me put it this way. I don't want to encourage that line of thought. I don't think it's fully accurate, but I also don't want, I know it's frustrating, but we really don't want to get too much into who knew what, where, when." Snow said "it's safe to say" that Bush had been "extensively briefed over the last few days as the operation that took place became more and more imminent." Snow said the British investigation was a topic of a Sunday briefing in which Bush took part. looks like it was all known before, and all that followed this Boogieman scare at the Airports was pure Bull Shit. You didn’t want those items that they made you toss in the garbage at the Airports anyway, or did you?...http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/280916_terrorgop11.html

Bush cautioned on Sat the threat from a plot to detonate liquid explosives on commercial flights may not have passed & denied Democratic charges he was trying to use the crisis for political gains in an election year. "We believe that this week's arrests have significantly disrupted the threat," "Yet we cannot be sure that the threat has been eliminated." British authorities arrested 2 dozen suspects on Thur for allegedly plotting to use liquid explosives to blow up airliners flying from Britain to the United States. The arrests prompted the United States to raise its terror alert to the highest level ever and prompted airports to ban passengers from taking liquids, gels and creams on planes. The boogieman don’t have to do anything anymore, just the rumor that he may do something puts this country into a panic and has the foolish whimpering for protection and giving more power to a government that has a long long track record of lying to them. Some people just never learn ...http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060812/pl_nm/security_bush_dc